Friday, 18 November 2016

Ever find yourself searching for the right word to express an emotion, but coming up short? That's not surprising. English, while undoubtedly useful and beautiful in its own way, isn't the be-all-end-all when it comes to self-expression.

These Dutch words have no English equivalent - we can draw on them when we have something to say but don't have the right words to say it.

1 comment(s):

Matthew
said...

Well that was nice.English is my first language, but after nearly 30 years in Germany and a lot of work trips to Nederlands, I was surprised by how much I understood without really trying. When I realized the 'uit was spoken the same way as 'out' in Northern Ireland and meant more or less the same, things people would say to each other started to make some sense.I only wish I had understood 'uitzieken', 'Uitwaaien' then. But then everyone spoke such good English. It was only on the very few evenings in the pub that I could relate the Dutch that was been spoken on a particular them to the English we were talking up to then. Jeez, that was fun. The pinnacle was learning to sing 'Yellow submarine' in Dutch.

We leven allemaal op een gele onderzeeër..."

Actually I just copied that from Google Translate. But it doesn't sound right. I think they were me something a little more obscene.